U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley, is breaking ranks with many Republicans in the U.S. Congress to co-sponsor federal cannabis law reforms with the leader of House Democrats and one of the far-right’s top ideological enemies in Congress.

She’s joining with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. on legislation to create a regulatory framework that would be in place if federal marijuana prohibitions are ever lifted.

A second bill is co-sponsored with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known as “AOC” and the top figure in the liberal “squad regularly denounced by congressional conservatives. The bill would provide $20 million in funding for reviewing and expunging past convictions under state marijuana laws.

In a statement released this week, Chavez-DeRemer said the legislation was to “prepare for the inevitable end to cannabis prohibition.”

“Many states across the country, including Oregon, have adopted common sense cannabis reforms, and it’s past time for Congress to act to reflect this reality at the federal level,” Chavez-DeRemer said.

Since flipping the 5th Congressional District to the Republican side of the aisle and helping the party take a slim majority in the House, Chavez-DeRemer has mostly been a loyal vote for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California. Her own swearing-in was delayed several days as she was among McCarthy loyalists who stuck with him through more than a dozen votes to secure the chamber’s top job. 

Chavez-DeRemer was boosted early in her campaign by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, who ousted then-U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming from the No. 3 post in the House hierarchy. While Cheney voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump. Stefanik is backing his return to the White House.

Chavez-DeRemer has already raised more than $600,000 for a 2024 re-election bid. Democrats are expected to make a major national effort to win back the seat, which was drawn by the Legislature for the 2022 election to have a voting trend tilt unfavorable to Republicans. The district extends from southern Portland, along the western flank of the Cascades before turning east at the Santiam Pass to take in portions of Bend and Redmond in Deschutes County..

Through the first months of the 118th Congress, attention on Chavez-DeRemer has focused on her support for the GOP agenda. Led by McCarthy, Republicans are seeking to undo programs and policy enacted under the previous Congress, in which Democrats held a functional majority in both the House and Senate, Congress worked – sometimes fitfully – with President Joe Biden.

After the 2022 election, Democrats increased their margin in the U.S. Senate to 51-49, but lost control of the U.S. House, with Republicans taking a 222-213 edge.

The cannabis bills are Chavez-DeRemer’s first major foray away from the GOP side of the aisle in Congress. Even their introduction was overwhelmed by the run-up to Wednesday night’s vote on a House GOP plan to lift the federal debt ceiling while cutting spending on several Biden-backed programs and rolling back environmental laws.

Chavez-DeRemer voted with the 217-215 majority, saying afterward that the “imperfect” bill was a start toward what she hoped would be negotiations with the White House and the Democratic-majority Senate.

The two cannabis reform bills will begin in a U.S. House with a thin conservative majority where consensus on continuing federal prohibitions is not a strictly party-line vote.

House Resolution 2598, the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-prohibition Adult-use Regulated Environment (PREPARE) Act, would direct the U.S. Justice Department to establish a Commission on the Federal Regulation of Cannabis. The panel would advise the creation of a “regulatory framework” for cannabis similar to that used regarding alcohol. It could be modeled on existing commissions in states where marijuana growth, sales, possession and consumption are legal.

Chavez-DeRemer’s statement said the act would within one year create a model to “ensure safe production and consumption of cannabis.” It would “build upon the Obama and Trump administrations’ efforts to remedy the unjust consequences of the war on cannabis, particularly those suffered by minority, low-income, and veteran communities.”

The new law would “account for the unique needs, rights, and laws of each state.” Among reforms could be medical research grants and training, protections for the domestic hemp industry, and ensuring that “absent a physician-prescribed treatment of a minor – cannabis remains an adult-only product.”

House Resolution 2677, the Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement (HOPE) Act would allocate $20 million for the U.S. Attorney General to fund efforts to review and expunge cannabis convictions of individuals under state laws. According to statistics released by the bills’ supporters, state and local police have arrested an estimated 7.3 million Americans since 2010 for violating marijuana laws.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumeneaur, D-Portland, and Rep. David Joyce, D-Ohio, two longtime proponents of federal marijuana law reform, are also co-sponsors, along with District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat.

“As we continue to advocate for the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, this bipartisan bill will provide localities the resources they need to expunge drug charges that continue to hold back Americans, disproportionately people of color, from employment, housing, and other opportunity,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement this week on the HOPE Act introduction.